Over the weekend, he seemed to stiffen some--his meds had been cut back to once daily--and this morning, when the farrier was due, he was as bad as on the day the vet saw him, even with the cushion wedges on.
We cut off the bandages, took off the pads, and the farrier didn't have to explain what I was seeing on the bottom of his off fore (the worse of the two)--the sole had dropped right in front of the frog. Proof of coffin bone rotation. Brian trimmed the toe down as the vet had requested, left on more hoof than he otherwise would in case the vet wanted to put on a heart bar shoe. Put on a hoof packing material (has antibiotics to prevent infection esp when hoof is occluded from normal exposure) then the pad, then bandaged it on again. Then we tried to work on the other front hoof, which meant Mac had to put weight on the worse one. Mac was squinching his nose and trembling a little. He was really good until we were wrapping the bandage around the wedge pad and then it just got too much for him...he came off the other front (Brian was holding the near fore, for me to bandage, and trying to give Mac some support), and collapsed onto his near hindquarter, almost falling on top of me. Except that I'm a quick scrambler, even when I'm down on the ground, as I was.
When Mac got back up, he was trembling, even twitching his back and haunch muscles. I kicked myself for not having dosed him early with Bute (he wasn't scheduled to get it until evening) and Brian didn't do his back feet, as this would have forced him to bear weight on both fronts equally or fall. Gave him a gram of Bute right away, which is what we had left in the syringe. Brian trimmed Illusion and then I zipped in the house and called the vet. Then drove up to the clinic (it's quite a ways) to pick up more Bute, arranged with the vet to send someone with a trailer for him (since my trailer isn't functional at present and my towing vehicle is supposedly about to throw a rod and needs a new engine...) He's supposed to be picked up at 7:30 in the morning, and will get two grams of Bute an hour before, for transport. X-ray, dye study of circulation...and then find out just how bad it is.
Been down this road before. Didn't like it then. Don't like it now. Don't like seeing animals suffer.
The other horse, old Bananaface, Illusion, Boyo, the Yellow Peril (he's a palomino) is annoyed that Mac is getting attention. Attention deficit sulking. So he was naughty while getting his trim and then, after getting the usual smack for being naughty that way, tried to pretend nothing had happened. "Who me yank a hind leg away and threaten a farrier? You must be kidding. I'm a sweet, gentle old nag." The thing is, he'll be naughty maybe once in 3-4 trims, and afterwards he stands like a lamb and it lasts through several trims and then he tries it again. With a 1400 pound half-warmblood standing over 16 hands--every inch of him stout--you cannot let him get away with it. I value my farrier's life, limbs, and back, and a flat smack doesn't hurt the horse. Then he sulked his way back out to the grass lot, and when I went out later he told me (ears, head position) that he was really so, so miserable. I hugged him. I stroked him. "Got carrots?" he said to my pocket. "It's a cellphone," I said. "In case the vet calls with more directions." "Not edible?" said a probing lip. "No carrots!" I said, and left him there.